The Great Wagon Road: From Philadelphia to the South

After researching my family tree, I found it interesting that for several branches generation after generation were going from Ireland to Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, then strangely up to Indiana and Illinois. Other branches of my family tree took the National Road west, but the Great Wagon Road is an interesting story for the development of the early eastern United States. It was a road "worn down in earlier ages by buffalo." Later after the extinction of the eastern buffalo it was "the ancient Warrior's Path...used by Iroquois tribesmen of the north to come south and trade or make war in [what later would become] Virginia and the Carolinas."While much has been written about the Scots-Irish, this book includes other Protestant migrants such as the German, Moravian, Palatine, and Quakers. The book also describes the various Protestant preachers such as Francis Asbury and Peter Muhlenberg that so affected the settlers, broadly cast the seeds of religious freedom and anti-slavery. Many of those clans who migrated to North Carolina, moved onto Tennessee and Kentucky only to find that they could not compete economically with slaveholders and moved north to the free labor states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. There they met other branches who generally followed the National Road west from Philadelphia.The book is full of details that give the reader clear pictures of what life was like living along the great wagon road and various branches west. I recommend the book for those wanting an in-depth image of what their ancestors did to survive and make a life for themselves in this part of the country.

I haven’t finished the book yet but the history of the road and the people who traveled it is good reading.

From living two decades in Winchester, VA, the book was of interest. I was surprised by the history of Rt. 11 through the Shenandoah Valley. The book was both informative and entertaining.

I was delighted to read this book that described the path taken from Philadelphia into the Charlotte North Carolina region by my Morrisson ancestors. One of my favorite parts was discussion regarding The Battle of Kings Mountain which provided a stage for the King's Mountain Messenger who eventually moved to Lincoln County Tennessee and is buried near a community that we today call Po Grab. The Morrisson's also moved into Tennessee to claim therir Revolutionary War Land Grant as did the Kng's Mountain Messenger, first founding the town of Morrisson then moving on to adjacent Bedford County Tennessee. At 50 this book helped me find my sense of place in this world by branching over 200 years of American history that framed, touched and formed me. Not only does it describe my Morrisson heritage but quite likely it describes my Dunn and Dixon heritage as well.Hurrah!

In early American history this is how people moved up and down and into the west. You can see some remains of this road today.I was interested in this book because I had a Very Grandmother go from Greencastle Penn area to Ausgusta Co. Va in the 1760s. I also have traveled on some of new road which has replaced the old dirt road. It told me what my Grandmother would have seen on her trip.

This is an interesting and informative book, not so much giving specifics about how/when different groups migrated where, but giving a very good idea of what a central role the Great Wagon Road played. Its role in migration I had always understood, but its significance during the Revolutionary War was something I had never given much thought to. I especially appreciated the first-hand accounts from diaries and such - you can talk in the abstract about the way things were, but there's no substitute for hearing a version from someone who lived it. I always loved reading about the Old Waggoner, Daniel Morgan, but fell in love with this no-nonsense tough guy all over again from reading about his exploits vis-à-vis this road as both civilian and military commander. His character sounds very much like one of my own ancestors who grew up on the frontiers of Georgia.

This book is all that was expected and so much more! Anyone doing family genealogy might enjoy learning more details of life and struggles by ancestor's who lived near, or traveled along the Great Wagon Road. Numerous source citations, using numbered notes by chapter for sources quoted. Many many interesting first hand accounts by those living at the time period covered. Well organized and researched throughout this book. Very happy with this book!

Rouse offers the reader a well-spun story which, at times, feels almost Victorian in its romantic tone. The author has narrative skill well beyond what we normally expect of an academic historian, and the metaphors flow freely from his pen. But what's good for romance is often not good for history.This book IS intended as a serious work of history, and it serves that purpose relatively well considering the historiography of the period in which it was written (published in 1973). It's an easy read, and a bit of a page turner considering the potential dryness of the topic.The research is thin by today's standard, and there are many books with a more solid foundation on this topic than this one. Historian David Hackett Fischer, for example, has written extensively and solidly on the topic. If you don't mind your history light, and you want a good general exposure to the period and place, you'll probably enjoy this book. The author has the ability to take you along with the actors in the story, and that can be an enjoyable trip if you're willing to let your guard down a little!